briefs

As expected, United Air Lines company officials this week filed into Chicago’s bankruptcy court to ask for protection from its creditors. This move — the largest Chapter 11 filing in aviation history — came as nosurprise after the federal government denied United’s request for loan guarantees. Employees own 55 percent of United. The struggling airline […]

It’s not yet official, but it appears that Boeing’s Sonic Cruiser program may never get off the ground. Fortune Magazine claims that the design — which was introduced 21 months ago — has not drawn the interest of a single airline. A weak market and shifting customer preferences is the company’s “official” response to its […]

The U.S. Forest Service is taking action after an expert panel declared the aerial firefighting program as unsafe. The panel’s report was prompted by two air-tanker crashes and one helicopter crash this past summer. The expert group, led by former National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall and Texas state forester Jim Hull, faulted the […]

To move or not to move. That is the question … for the Engineers Club of Dayton. The organization owns and houses an original Wright Brothers engine and is considering a request to put it on tour in conjunction with next year’s 100th anniversary of flight celebration. Rolls Royce’s jet-engine division wants to display the […]

Tower controllers at Page Field in Fort Myers, Fla., last Friday tried to assist an aircraft low on fuel and trying to land in marginal weather conditions. After three landing attempts in low visibility, the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed in a housing subdivision. Laurence and Nina Casey were killed when their Beech […]

Raytheon may move to take control of Flight Options LLC, less than a year after Raytheon’s Travel Air fractional ownership arm and Flight Options formed a joint venture. According to Raytheon’s latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing, it’s invested $83 million in the merger, including a $20 million loan to Flight Options. The merger created […]

One of the most powerful figures in American aviation during the 1970s — and possibly the reason you can use a GPS in your airplane — died last week in Alexandria, Va. John L. McLucas, 82, was secretary of the Air Force and FAA administrator. He died of respiratory failure. McLucas spent his whole life […]

Now that the FAA has finally got its Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) up and running in Philadelphia, the Inspector General’s Office wants some reassurance of the system’s performance. The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General will audit the FAA’s terminal automation modernization program, of which the $1 billion STARS program is the key. An […]

Stopping runway incursions just got easier … in a complicated sort of way. London Heathrow Airport is claiming to be the first to use an electronic system to monitor and plot the position of aircraft and vehicles on the ground. The Multistatic Dependent Surveillance (MDS) system uses a system of sensors, radar and transponders to […]

Hopefully someone feels much more secure now that airports big and small have closed observation areas and other public places near their runways. The action was taken after terrorists tried to down an Arkia airliner in Kenya using shoulder-fired missiles. Precisely where the terrorists launched the missiles from we don’t know. Nor do we know […]